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January 6, 2017

Way of Four Fists

Monastic TraditionComments from the Thumb: This subclass is a little...monk-ey. There, I said it.Way of Four Fists

Through the careful manipulation of their ki, monks of the Way of Four Fists strive to emulate the unusual fighting style of the legendary Monkey King. As they progress in their training, these monks undergo a magical transformation, slowly gaining more simian features. In combat, a master of this monastic tradition is a whirling, leaping blur of elbows, fur, and fists.Grasp of the Monkey
When you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you undergo a permanent magical transformation, lengthening your fingers and toes, strengthening your arms and legs, and sprouting a tail. You gain a climbing speed equal to your movement speed, your jumping distance is doubled, and you have advantage on ability checks and saving throws made to climb, maintain your balance, and grip objects such as ledges or ropes. You can hold and manipulate objects and weapons with your hands, feet, and tail, but you can’t make attack rolls with weapons held by your tail.
Additionally, whenever you roll initiative and are not surprised, you can move up to half your movement speed or jump into the air.

Nimbus
At 6th level, you can use your bonus action to summon a cloud to ride upon. Until the beginning of your next turn, you have a fly speed equal to your movement speed. When you begin your turn, you can maintain this effect by spending a ki point. Otherwise, if you begin your turn in the air, you fall.

Uncanny Dodge
Starting at 11th level, when an attacker that you can see hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to halve the attack’s damage against you.

Flurry of Limbs
At 17th level, by walking on your hands and twirling erratically, you can fight with your feet as nimbly as you do your fists. You make three unarmed strikes, rather than two, when you use Flurry of Blows on your turn.

Changelog: 1/6/17: Grasp of the Monkey: Jump distance is doubled, you can move when you roll initiaitve
Monkey's Leap: Replaced with Nimbus
1/7/17: Nimbus: Bonus action to activate

Agreed about the grappling. I like grappling as monks (it makes sense, imo). Monkey's Leap would be great if you had items/feats to increase your jump so you'd always gain that damage.

Part of me also wants this to include quarterstaves; Wukong from League of Legends comes to mind. Maybe letting you gain reach two-handed or something? Or maybe being able to use that as a boost for Monkey's Leap if you can plant it once the ground and then climb up it.

I didn't want to give free advantage on grappling -- that doesn't seem like the kind of nimble combat the Monkey King is about. So, I gave the class the ability to move or jump on initiative and doubled the jump distance offered.

I can't argue with personal preference on the grappling thing but I will say that the image of a the Monkey King leaping onto a larger foe's chest, grabbing its lapels with his feet, and smashing it with his fists/staff seems pretty in-character to me. I do like the movement at initiative, though.

On the Nimbus cloud, you burn a bonus action to summon it. Could summoning be done with a Ki point to effectively give you Step of the Wind so you don't take Opportunity Attacks?

There isn't a cost for Nimbus. Nothing to activate it anyway. No action, no resource. As is you'd theoretically wouldn't have to pay the ki cost to maintain it because you'd just activate it again? Or you just use this every other round? I'm not sure but it's weird.